UT, BG women roll at home

Falcon, Buckeye men sputter in losses

A couple of weeks back University of Toledo women’s basketball coach Tricia Cullop adopted a defensive grading system used by men’s coach Tod Kowalczyk that assigns every point scored by an opponent to a Toledo player. Think of it as golf. High scores are no good. After Thursday’s sloppy win over Northern Illinois, Cullop’s analysis yielded an unlikely conclusion.

The last time teams from Bowling Green and Northern Illinois met, the world watched. Sunday the men’s basketball teams from the two schools met. And the world winced. Well, only the 1,982 at the Stroh Center had to shield their eyes as the two teams combined for just 81 points, more turnovers (30) than field goals (26), and more free throws missed (27) than made (22).

The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team said it wasn’t a big deal that Akron was picked to win the Mid-American Conference’s East Division this year. “The bull’s-eye was on their backs for once — normally it is on ours,” senior Jillian Halfhill said. “We are just going to play our hearts out and show everyone what we’ve got.”

It was an afternoon of promise and exasperation, with LaQuinton Ross caught in the middle. Ross foreshadowed what the Ohio State basketball team can be when he was at his dynamic best Sunday against visiting Iowa. The 6-foot-8 junior forward shot over the top of the Hawkeyes’ zone and was aggressive inside of it, scoring 22 points and nudging third-ranked OSU to a nine-point lead midway through the second half.

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